


earworms & serenades

by grossnoona



Series: ESO2019 [2]
Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Drabble, Everyone after Subaru is mentioned (and its not even in order of appearance soz), M/M, Subaru and Mao scream into their own individual buckets abt soulmates bc skjdnjskd WHAT THE FUCK
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-12 18:57:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19951213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grossnoona/pseuds/grossnoona
Summary: Soulmates cause a lot of problems but mainly, Mao thinks they're the best at creating useless earworms of songs Mao barely listens to.His soulmate is notoriously good at that.Mao, to be honest, has never really spoken to himand he probably should get to thatSubaru doesn't get soulmates.He understands the concept but doesn't know how to deal with his.His soulmate doesn't quite sing often which sucks because he really likes his voice.He wants to know a little bit more about the other. Even if it's a tiny bit.If only there was a loophole in this soulmate agenda.[ESO Round 2; Prompt 148: Soulmate!AU: soulmates hear singing of each other in their heads]





	earworms & serenades

**Author's Note:**

> Hi hi!! Grossnoona here!!  
> MY INTERNET IS BACK SO THAT MEANS!!! I CAN FINALLY WRITE IN PEACE!!!  
> Today I wrote a soulmate drabble for ESO Round 2!!  
> I actually don't do soulmates often but this time, I couldn't help but exercise my ability to annoy Isara Mao.  
>  **I'm a shitty MaoP**  
>  I hope you have fun reading!!

Mao knows earworms exist. It’s an interesting phenomenon that most people like to think about. Mao is one of those people who like to think about it. Usually, the songs he gets stuck in his head are grocery store jingles, a song his sister has been blasting lately or maybe a song Ritsu has been humming along to.

However, it’s rare for Mao to get songs that don’t necessarily seem to be within the pool of genres he’s used to listening to. He’d say it’s so rare for such things to happen because Mao is the type to not quite leave his comfort zone. He’s content with humming to softer and melancholic tunes rather than anything out of that fashion.

Right now, it seemed this earworm serves to be the rare kind of situation.

As he worked on his reports, he seemed to have started hearing what seems to be a poor rendition of _that stupid circus song_ . Mao doesn’t even know the name of the song but he knows it fairly well that whoever is singing this song can’t even remember the _whole song_ . The singer just keeps repeating the most annoying part of the song _over and over_ **_again_ **. Mao is going to murder someone if this keeps up.

Mao is also aware of soulmates. They exist, of course. He just hopes this isn’t the works of his soulmate. Though, judging by how **unlikely** it is for Mao to actual get such a song stuck in his head; it’s definitely the works of his soulmate.

Mao takes a deep breath. He wonders what he did to deserve this kind of punishment. His soulmate seems to be very interested in really obscure songs. He must be those types to jokingly listen to meme-related songs, only to get them stuck in his head involuntarily. Mao isn’t new to this concept; he also _should be used to it by now_ but somehow he isn’t.

Why can’t his soulmate be easy to deal with like Arashi’s? Not only does he share the same taste in music with her, she _in fact has met him_ . It seems her love life is a fucking breeze. He’s happy for her but at the same time, he’s kind of jealous of her. He doesn’t know much about Ritsu’s. He hasn’t said much about his soulmate except Ritsu wished they had better taste in music and that Ritsu sings his favourite songs to ensure that his soulmate _knows what good music sounds like_.

Mao is tempted to try that, to be honest.

Is it the fact that his soulmate sings nothing but really weird songs? Like no one would voluntarily sing that stupid creeper song, right? No, no one would do such a thing but yet here he was; forced to induce a setlist of just stupid memes.

Maybe Mao is just overreacting. Sometimes, they’re cute to listen to but he has work to do. He can indulge for stupid moments like these another time, right now he has a report to send in before the vice president starts chasing after him for it. He screams internally before going back to his work. As much as he wants to ignore, he finds himself humming a little to one of the songs his soulmate has chosen.

“Nobody isn’t a bad song,” he tells himself as he furiously typed away on his laptop, hoping he can finish his work on time.

After work, he can indulge his soulmate with more poor singing.

_That is if the other was up for it_.

Subaru comes out of the shower, humming to countless songs. He didn’t quite realise that it would affect his soulmate until he heard someone else humming along with him. He had to admit, he’s pretty forgetful in that aspect.

He started panicking when he heard his soulmate hum along, he got in a fighting stance even though he was the only one in the shower. In fact, his mom isn’t even home and Daikichi was in Subaru’s bedroom so he was _really alone at that point_. Yet, his brain falsely alerted him that it was an intruder.

Standing in a fighting stance butt naked in the shower isn’t the first thing someone would do if they heard someone hum but Subaru isn’t a lot like others. It took him a couple of minutes after the humming stopped and Subaru to shout, “ _Who’s there?!_ ”, to finally realise it was in fact _his soulmate_. He’d have to admit; he felt pretty embarrassed after realising it.

He wasn’t very used to his soulmate.

His soulmate wasn’t like his friends’. Hokuto’s soulmate sings almost every day. In fact, Hokuto believes his soulmate _purposely serenades_ him late at night which is pretty romantic. Makoto’s soulmate sings happy tunes which leads him to sing along too. Subaru is pretty jealous because that means they share similar taste in music and can duet often. His soulmate isn’t much like that.

Subaru’s soulmate, for one thing, doesn’t sing often.

Subaru would consider it a rare treat to hear the other sing which sucks to be honest. Subaru likes his soulmate’s voice. His voice was sweet and bold but yet it was also really soft because he’d be laughing while singing. It makes Subaru’s heart flutter to be honest. Just being able to hear his soulmate’s voice sing lyrics to songs Subaru doesn’t quite recognise, even if it was for a short while, it leaves Subaru dreaming for days about the owner of that beautiful voice.

Though, Subaru realised his soulmate would sing almost as if he was singing along with someone.

That part kind of twists Subaru’s heart a little. A part of him reasons that his soulmate might be part of a music club hence why every time he sings, it’s with someone. Though, it doesn’t quite cover why he sings so little. Another part of him tells him that maybe, _most likely_ , his soulmate was in love with someone else at the moment. Even if it’s not _that someone else_ he hears in his head when they sing together.

Subaru doesn’t like it when he gets caught up with ugly thoughts like that. He doubts his soulmate even knows Subaru exists that much.

“ _But he hummed with you during one of those songs, no? Wouldn’t that mean he knows that you’re his soulmate?_ ” A voice in his head, vaguely sounding like Chiaki, consoling him.

That’s true. He did hum. That was rare. Subaru should’ve been happy instead of the other way around. Scratching his head, he really wished he could talk about these things with someone. All of this soulmate talk, it was hard to understand. Hokuto might be strapped in some sort of acting class and Makoto might be hanging with _his soulmate_ right now. Bothering them is a no-go. Chiaki might be free but wouldn’t it be annoying for Subaru to be bothering him over _every single issue he runs to about his soulmate_? He doesn’t want to tire his senior out like that.

“What do you think, hm? Daikichi?” Subaru asks his dog who only barks in response.

Do dogs have soulmates too? He hopes so. It’d be sad if Daikichi never got to meet his soulmate too. He wonders how it works out for dogs. Do they hear singing like most humans do? Maybe the howling that Daikichi does counts as him singing to his soulmate? He can’t be sure.

As he lies on his bed, he hears his soulmate sing. He doesn’t know if there’s someone else with his soulmate but it seems too late for someone to be over on a school night. Maybe he’s just singing on his own.

_Or maybe.._

He’s singing to Subaru? Can he have this wishful thought? Is it okay to want to be selfish and say that his soulmate is singing softly to him? Subaru doesn’t know. He feels warm and his chest tightens a little as he hears the lyrics talk about love, wanting to see someone and all of that gushy stuff that was the complete opposite of Subaru’s choice of songs.

Oh man, he’s starting to feel _really embarrassed_.

Every time Subaru hears his soulmate’s voice say _I love you_ , his heart almost feels like it’s going to burst. He wants to say _I love you too_ but he doesn’t know how. Singing is the only form of communication they have, how do you defeat that? Subaru doesn’t know. He’s too much of a mess to think straight. He feels a rush of different emotions that he doesn’t know the name to, it _honestly feels great_? Subaru really doesn’t know what to do.

“ _If you wanna reply, you can always sing it out,_ ” His soulmate sings to him.

Subaru pauses for a moment. Does it actually work? Well, it--it does, now that Subaru thought about it. He just heard his soulmate sing that out.

“ _My friend found a loophole and told me to try it out,_ ” His soulmate continues to sing, Subaru was amazed. His soulmate and his friends must be geniuses then. His soulmate must know quite a bit about soulmates then. Subaru’s knowledge will definitely pale in comparison to him.

Somehow such a thought kind of relieved Subaru. It felt reassuring to see his soulmate try to communicate with Subaru. It felt _pretty good actually_.

Subaru tries it. He tries to sing out his worries, he isn’t that good at making songs in comparison to his soulmate who laughs like an angel in response. He still replies anyway, talking about how if Subaru keeps trying, he’ll definitely get better. His soulmate promises that much.

They spend their late night like that; singing poorly to each other until their throats croak.

Subaru laughs each time he hears his soulmate’s voice crack. It can’t be helped that his would crack as well so he guesses that both of them are even in that sense. It was getting late, Subaru had to wake up early for practice. He sings goodnight but just before he could finish that; he asks for his soulmate’s name.

His soulmate voice almost sounds like it was smiling; “ _Mao_ ,” he sings before signing off.

“Mao,” Subaru repeats.

It’s a pretty name. It suits his voice. Subaru has a name to finally label that angelic voice in his head that takes in the shape of his soulmate. Subaru slips into bed, dreaming of what Mao could be like. Judging by their conversation, he seems to be pretty stiff and funny. He wonders what Mao looks like. He doesn’t really care for looks but he’s just curious.

Subaru finds himself falling back in love with the voice hears in his head; it’s exhilarating and he can’t help but want to see him as soon as possible.

**Author's Note:**

> Can you believe I actually thought of a loophole instead of liberating the concept of the soulmate into talking _and_ singing bc I'm stupid and just like people speaking in a singing-song way? bc I think I do a lot of dumb things lol  
> This isn't the only thing I have for Round 2 btw!!  
> I'll be making more so please look forward to them!!  
> Thank you for reading!!


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